Politician, evangelist, and reformer William Jennings Bryanwas the most popular public speaker of his time. In this acclaimedbiography–the first major reconsideration of Bryan’s life in fortyyears–award-winning historian Michael Kazin illuminates hisastonishing career and the richly diverse and volatile landscape ofreligion and politics in which he rose to fame. Kazin vividlyre-creates Bryan’s tremendous appeal, showing how he won apassionate following among both rural and urban Americans, who sawin him not only the practical vision of a reform politician butalso the righteousness of a pastor. Bryan did more than anyone totransform the Democratic Party from a bulwark of laissez-faire tothe citadel of liberalism we identify with Franklin D. Roosevelt.In 1896, 1900, and 1908, Bryan was nominated for president, andthough he fell short each time, his legacy–a subject of greatdebate after his death–remains monumental. This nuanced andbrilliantly crafted portrait restores Bryan to an esteemed pla

“Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyricalcoming-of-age story as well as a candid and heart-warming tributeto her parents. Growing Up X is destined to become aclassic.” –SPIKE LEE February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated inHarlem’s Audubon Ballroom. June 23, 1997: After surviving for aremarkable twenty-two days, his widow, Betty Shabazz, dies of burnssuffered in a fire. In the years between, their six daughters reachadulthood, forged by the memory of their parents’ love, the meaningof their cause, and the power of their faith. Now, at long last,one of them has recorded that tumultuous journey in anunforgettable memoir: Growing Up X . Born in 1962, Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious livewirewho fought for–and won–attention in an all-female household. Shecarried on the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable motherwhile navigating childhood and, along the way, learning to do thehustle. She was a different color from other kids at camp and yet,years later as a y

By the time Vivienne Eliot was committed to an asylum for whatwould be the final nine years of her life, she had been abandonedby her husband T.S. Eliot and shunned by literary London. YetVivienne was neither insane nor insignificant. She generouslycollaborated in her husband’s literary efforts, taking dictation,editing his drafts, and writing articles for his magazine,Criterion. Her distinctive voice can be heard in his poetry. Andparadoxically, it was the unhappiness of the Eliots’ marriage thatinspired some of the poet’s most distinguished work, from TheFamily Reunion to The Waste Land. This first biography ever writtenabout Vivienne draws on hundreds of previously unpublished papers,journals and letters to portray a spontaneous, loving, but fragilewoman who had an important influence on her husband’s work, as wellas a great poet whose behavior was hampered by psychological andsexual impulses he could not fully acknowledge. Intriguing and provocative, Painted Shadow gracefully rescuesV

Using the oral-biography style that made his Edie (editedwith Jean Stein) a bestseller, George Plimpton has blended thevoices of Capote's friends, lovers, and colleagues into acaptivating and narrative. Here we see the entire span of Capote'slife, from his Southern childhood, to his early days in New York;his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices,Other Rooms; his highly active love life; the groundbreakingexcitement of In Cold Blood, the first "nonfiction novel"; hisyears as a jet-setter; and his final days of flagging inspiration,alcoholism, and isolation. All his famous friends and enemies arehere: C.Z. Guest, Katharine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal,Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Huston, William F. Buckley, Jr.,and dozens of others.